How At-Bay Simplified Payroll and Scored More Time for Their Employees

At-Bay is a cyber insurance provider that helps businesses big and small confront digital risk head-on. The company is on a mission to empower every business to understand and manage risk so they can thrive in a digital world.

Combining world-class technology and industry-leading insurance expertise, At-Bay offers comprehensive insurance policies for all types of businesses, plus access to their automated underwriting platform and educational Broker Knowledge Center. The 300+ person company is global, with headquarters in San Francisco, research and development teams in Tel Aviv, and regional underwriting offices across the US.

To support their US-based HR and payroll teams, At-Bay uses Sparrow to help manage employee leaves.

Community above all else

At-Bay knows their people are their greatest competitive advantage—which is why they put their community first. “What’s special about At-Bay is that our employees are genuinely happy to be here,” said Heidi Arcilla, HR Project Specialist at At-Bay. “On top of our great people team and culture, we also provide competitive benefits that really make people feel supported by our business.”

Along with all-inclusive health insurance, 401k plans, and life and disability insurance, At-Bay gives every employee four weeks of paid vacation, quarterly wellness days, flexible working schedules, and remote work options. “We also offer growth opportunities, management training, and learning and development benefits to ensure we set people up for success when they join this company,” Arcilla added.

“When big life events and changes happen, we want employees to know they’re going to be supported the entire way,” she explained. That’s why the company offers generous paid parental leave plans and mental health resources, including regular wellness days and monthly wellness stipends.

The challenge: Managing a growing number of employee leaves with limited resources

As part of At-Bay’s commitment to their community, they wanted to give employees a comfortable, stress-free leave experience, while also minimizing their HR and payroll teams’ backend obligations.

“In my previous HR roles, I managed leaves on my own and it was a heavy lift,” Arcilla said. “I had to juggle so many different tasks and rely on my memory for a lot of follow-ups and confirmations.”

Keeping up with frequently updated state laws around leave was confusing and complicated, and coordinating paperwork with employees was tedious and inefficient. As At-Bay grew in employee headcount, the company started getting increasingly more leaves.

“When a healthy percentage of your employee population goes on leave, leave management becomes a full-time job in and of itself, on top of all your other HR responsibilities,” Arcilla explained.

On the payroll side, At-Bay was struggling to ensure they were compensating employees correctly. “It was challenging trying to integrate state benefits with our third-party disability benefits and then our company top-up. The payroll team and I were doing all the checks to make sure everyone was paid the right amount and that we weren’t overpaying, which took a lot of time,” she said.

The solution: Using Sparrow for full-service leave management

At-Bay turned to Sparrow for full-service leave management for a few key reasons: The company wanted to facilitate a positive and timely leave process for their employees, ensure compliance with regulations from various jurisdictions, and implement a leave management system they could use as they scaled.

“If we didn’t have Sparrow, we would have to hire a full-time dedicated leave employee,” said Arcilla. Instead of tasking one person with ensuring compliance, coordinating with payroll, and addressing employee concerns, At-Bay uses Sparrow to manage leave from start to finish.

“Using Sparrow makes it easier for us to focus more on the employee experience and less on the administrative duties,” she explained. In addition to navigating state laws and handling paperwork, Sparrow Leave Specialists work alongside At-Bay’s HR team to share updates and respond to issues.

“Sparrow does a great job of highlighting nuances of leave requirements and combing through all the details, so we don’t have to. Things like, our company has a five-day week, but the state uses a seven-day week, so how do we integrate that? Sparrow figures out how to solve those problems.”

With employees working in 22 different states, At-Bay also has a variety of state guidelines and processes to comply with. “We’ve even had folks who have moved from one state to another in the middle of their leave,” Arcilla added, “which has complicated the question of which state benefits they’re entitled to. Sparrow has been able to navigate that with us and take charge of calling the different state agencies to sort it out.”

One of At-Bay’s primary pain points with leave management was payroll integration. “In the past, there was no formula that worked for us that didn’t either confuse me or confuse our Senior Payroll Accountant,” explained Arcilla. Now, however, At-Bay relies on Sparrow’s detailed spreadsheets and personalized payroll plans for each employee to simplify payroll.

“It’s incredible to have a consistent solution,” she explained. “Sparrow breaks everything down by our company’s actual pay dates and pay periods, then separates everything according to how much the state pays, how much the third-party disability benefit pays, and how much At-Bay needs to pay based on whether the employee is taking leave, vacation time, sick time, or whatever. The categories make it really easy to understand. All we have to do when we’re running payroll is look at the spreadsheet and see how much we owe.”

Sparrow didn’t just reduce the issues At-Bay was experiencing—it also made the company’s payment process more straightforward. “Sparrow’s payroll support has taken a huge effort off our plates and given us back so much more time,” said Arcilla.

On the employee-facing side, Sparrow’s one-on-one support has been invaluable to At-Bay’s people. “There’s a lot of anxiety that comes with going on leave, especially if you’re going for the first time,” Arcilla explained. “I love that one Sparrow Leave Specialist is dedicated to each of our employees throughout the duration of their leave. That way they have a familiar face to guide them through the process and answer questions.”

At-Bay also appreciates Sparrow’s responsiveness and compassionate approach to communicating with employees. “Sparrow is super responsive to our team’s urgent questions and to our employees’ needs,” Arcilla added. “They’re able to come in and calmly reassure our employees, letting them know that they’ve got everything under control.”

The result: More time and mental space to invest back into company growth and employee happiness

With fewer leave admin tasks to worry about, At-Bay’s HR team is focused on hiring and continuing to developing At-Bay employee programs.

“We’re able to spend more time building out our benefits and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives,” said Arcilla. “We want to make sure our employees feel supported, so we’ve had more freedom to create programs that get our employees better integrated with the company.”

Want to learn more about how Sparrow streamlines leave management while improving the employee experience? Check out our offerings or book a demo today.